Standing Up to Bogus Scientific Claims Made By Republicans!
As I scientist, I find it offensive that Republican Presidential candidates like Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry are allowed to spew false claims and scientifically-wrong information to the public without a peep from the scientific community. Perhaps many scientists choose to not publicly speak out--even though they know that the information is wrong or unsubstantiated--because they don't want to attract attention to their often arcane research for fear that their funding may be cut. Or, maybe,scientists too often believe that the public won't understand what they say anyway. Whatever the reason, I applaud two bioethicists, Art Caplan at the University of Pennsylvania and Steve Miles at the University of Minnesota, for standing up to Michele Bachmann, a tea party Republican presidential hopeful, assertions that human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines--that protect against cervical cancer --cause mental retardation in those girls who are vaccinated with them.
Caplan accomplished this by publicly offering $10,000 to charity if Bachmann can prove her claim that she mad during a GOP debate on Monday night that HPV vaccination causes mental retardation. Similarly, Steve Miles offered $1,000 to Bachmann if she could substantiate her claims.
At present, HPV vaccination is voluntary. Further, there is absolutely no clinical data that links HPV vaccination to the onset of autism or for that matter mental retardation. As many of you know by now, the research that was used to show a link between childhood vaccinations and autism was fabricated and the scientist who performed the work was found to be a fraud.
Unfortunately, many politicians feel compelled to share their scientific views-- and make claims to support those views--without being qualified or trained to analyze whether or not the claims they make are scientifically accurate or valid. Anecdotal, scientifically-unproven rhetoric is unacceptable when making scientific claims for or against a specific product. To that end, I suspect that if Merck and GSK, the manufacturers of two FDA-approved HPV vaccines, were so inclined they could possibly file defamation lawsuits against Bachmann. This is because I believe that she intentionally made comments that are known not to be true with malicious intent. Interestingly, sales one of the HPV products, Merck's Gardasil, have recently hit an all time low!
I think it is time for the scientific community to publicly debunk many of the scientific myths e.g., vaccination and autism, creative design and that global warning is not real, perpetrated upon the public by bat-shit crazy members of the tea party, right wing conservative republicans and religious zealots. Failure to do so will lead to the ongoing decline in STEM preparedness and competitiveness in the US.
Hat tip to Drs. Caplan and Miles for publicly challenging one of the many scientifically-illiterate candidates running for president.
Until next time...
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!
While R&D scientists and sales representatives continue to struggle to find jobs in the US at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, the competition is fierce to hire and retain pharma employees in emerging markets like China and India. Earlier this week, I posted a piece on big pharma’s continuing expansion of its R&D activities in Asia and the growing need for US-trained PhDs in this region. However, it appears that hiring and retaining pharma sales reps is a bigger problem in China and India for big pharma companies like GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Sanofi-Aventis (SA) and Pfizer.(1).jpg)
Mathew Herper, who writes at the Forbes Blog, 
Ask any pharmaceutical industry pundits about the “next big thing” in life sciences R&D and most will invariably say neuroscience indications like Alzheimer's, Parkinson Disease and the like. Curiously, despite these prognostications, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 
For those of you who can’t tear yourselves away from the ongoing, nail-biting Sanofi Aventis-Genzyme saga, the head of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) R&D, Moncef Slaoui told a French newspaper that GSK will not “step in as a rival bidder for the US biotech Genzyme.”.jpg)
Yesterday, I posted a piece on "hit' throughput screening (see below). At the time, I learned about 'hit" throughput screening, I mentioned that I had never heard of "hit" throughput screening but I did know about high throughput screening. As it turns out, there was a problem in translation and in fact, there is no such thing as hit throughput screening and it is actually high throughput screening. Mea Culpa! I apologize for the error and in the future I will be assiduous in my fact checking before I post (a lesson that the boneheads in the Obama administration learned the hard way in the recent Sherrod brouhaha)
Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and MedTrust Online, an online oncology information site .jpg)
It is no secret that growth of the pharmaceutical industry has slowed to single digits in the past five years or more. In fact, many experts don’t expect there to be double digit growth in this sector for a long time. Instead, future robust growth of the pharmaceutical industry is expected to take place in emerging markets including India, China, Brazil, South Africa and others. This is because the economies of these countries are booming and the middle class in these nations continues to rapidly grow. .jpg)
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has advised GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to 
According to an 
After announcing that it would 
Many people, most notably GlaxoSmithKline employees, assumed that GSK management would disclose at its earning call yesterday how many people would lose their jobs in the company’s next round of job cuts announced earlier this week. Surprisingly, management decided not to announce the breadth and depth of layoffs ostensibly increasing the drama and anxiety of its employees about the cuts.
Despite the announcement late last week in the London Sunday Times that .jpg)
Without fanfare, .jpg)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted that clinical data support both the efficacy and safety of Cervarix®, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) cervical cancer vaccine..jpg)
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About a year ago, I was eating lunch and bunch of pharma executives were at the table next to me. I inadvertently overhead bits of their conversation and I heard the words, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube mentioned. This suggested to me that pharma was more aware of social media (and its business implications) than pharma publicly cared to admit. Pharma has been reluctant to embrace social media because of possible legal and regulatory ramifications. Nevertheless, a few companies have decided to boldly go where no pharma company has gone before—to YouTube..jpg)
The Pharmalot blog reported yesterday that .jpg)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said about 25% of teenage girls received at least one dose of Merck & Co.'s Gardasil vaccine in 2007
It was only a matter of time after .jpg)
The old adage “When it rains, it pours” is particular apt for the bad news that has plagued the once venerable Merck & Co for the past five years. First, there was the Vioxx scandal, followed in short order by the Vytorin and Singulair messes and now it appears that the company’s new anti-cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, may have —pardon the expression — a few “warts” on it. 